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The Premier League is the richest domestic soccer league in the world, with its existing broadcasting deals expected to bring in more than UK£10 billion (US$12.1 billion) in media rights revenue during its ongoing 2022 to 2025 sales cycle.
International broadcast revenue is now greater than domestic income, and it is overseas markets where the Premier League is likely to find more bountiful sources of growth in the coming years. However, its domestic rights auction remains a hugely lucrative exercise and has huge ramifications for the entire UK broadcast industry.
Put simply, no other sporting property comes close to the influence wielded by the Premier League in its home market. The Uefa Champions League, Formula One, and English cricket all have the ability to push the needle, but no sports broadcaster can be deemed a serious player in the UK without at least some rights to top-flight English soccer.
The Premier League has been the foundation of Sky’s business for more than three decades and was the launchpad for BT Sport (now TNT Sports) back in 2013. On the flipside, both Setanta Sports and ESPN quickly exited the UK after failing to retain their packages.
This significance helps explain why the rights sale is such a highly anticipated and speculated-about event – not least among consumers wondering how many services they will need to subscribe to and how much they will have to pay to follow their team.
The Premier League’s current UK£5.01 billion (US$6.3bn) partnerships with Sky Sports, TNT Sports and Amazon Prime were signed without a formal bidding process. With the pandemic still ongoing in 2021, the league wanted certainty of revenue and opted to roll over its existing agreements signed in 2018.
A lot has happened in the worlds of sport and broadcasting over the past six years, leading to plenty of competing narratives ahead of the new tender. How far would Sky go to defend its position as senior partner? Would the Premier League abandon the 3pm blackout? And would DAZN or Disney look to crash the party?
In the end, the outcome of the auction was fairly conventional. Sky Sports, TNT Sports and the BBC split the live and highlights rights for a combined UK£6.7 billion (US$8.44 billion) over four years between 2025 and 2029.
But what does this mean for the Premier League and the UK broadcasting market? SportsPro explains all.
What was the process?
While the Premier League sells all of its matches overseas, it limits the number of games that can be shown live in the UK. In the current cycle, just 200 of 380 matches are available to broadcasters in specific timeslots. No fixtures kicking off at the traditional 3pm can be televised due to a blackout designed to protect attendances across the English soccer pyramid.
This restriction of supply has helped maintain and grow the value of the Premier League’s television contracts by driving competition. However, this time round, the league has increased the number of televised fixtures to 270 and extended the usual three-year cycle to four years.
These changes were designed to increase revenues in a challenging rights market and give greater certainty to both clubs and potential broadcast partners who might be encouraged to make larger bids and invest in production.
Five packages were up for grabs with Amazon’s package of two full matchdays absorbed into a larger bundle. Crucially, no single broadcaster could win all five.
Sky Sports won four of the five packages available (Image credit: Getty Images)
Sky Sports emerge as the big winners
Sky won four out of the five packages on offer and will show a minimum of 215 games a season – a 70 per cent increase from its existing allocation of 128 games – to remain the Premier League’s senior domestic broadcast partner.
It retains a monopoly on Sunday coverage with at least two fixtures each matchday, along with any matches that have to be rescheduled on a Sunday due to teams’ European commitments. It will also show matches every Saturday evening and on selected Monday and Friday nights.
The Comcast-owned broadcaster is believed to be paying UK£1.28 billion (US$1.61bn) a season – a six per cent increase on its previous deal. However, it is now paying UK£5.95 million (US$7.48 million) a match, down from UK£9.3 million (US$11.7 million) a game currently, reflecting its vastly expanded deal.
Sky will be delighted with the outcome. It has more matches than it has ever had before for a minor increase in outlay. Despite investments in entertainment and movies, as well as in other core sports like Formula One, cricket, and golf, Premier League soccer remains the biggest driver of subscriptions.
The anticipated challenge from disruptors failed to materialise and Sky is undisputedly the home of the Premier League in the UK for another six years.
TNT Sports retained its 52 matches, hoping to lure customers to Discovery+ (Image credit: Getty Images)
TNT Sports happy with the status quo
For all the speculation surrounding the auction, no one expected TNT Sports to do anything more than the bare minimum and that’s exactly what transpired. It won Package A, which includes 32 Saturday lunchtime fixtures and two complete matchdays, bringing the total figure to 52 matches – the same as its existing contract. It’s also paying the same, UK£325 million (US$408.5 million) a season, or UK£6.25 million (US$7.9 million) a match.
The fee for the package reflects the fact that it was the least attractive option for Sky, which couldn’t take all five on offer, and that it was unlikely to push the needle sufficiently for a new entrant.
But all this will suit TNT Sports, which just needed its foot in the door without breaking the bank, to a tee.
TNT might have a solid portfolio of exclusive content, including Uefa Champions League soccer, MotoGP, domestic and European rugby union, and the National Basketball Association (NBA), but knows the importance of having at least some Premier League content as part of that overall mix – even if it’s the bare minimum. The Premier League drives subscribers to Discovery+ and provides value to BT and EE customers who get TNT Sports as part of their broadband or mobile contracts.
Amazon currently shows 20 games a season but will switch focus after the current cycle (Image credit: Getty Images)
Amazon Prime walks away empty-handed but without regrets
That Amazon came out of the auction with nothing should not come as any great surprise to students of its media rights strategy. The tech giant is incredibly opportunistic when it comes to acquisitions and refuses to be drawn into bidding wars where rights holders look to exploit its seemingly limitless cash reserves. Its current package of 20 matches across two full matchdays in December was effectively gifted to it by a Premier League eager to show how its rights could work for a streaming service. Accordingly, Amazon is thought to be paying just UK£30 million (US$37.7 million) a season for its games.
This time round, Amazon was getting no special treatment. Its 20 matches were absorbed into another package meaning the company would have to increase its investment to remain a partner and this was ultimately something it was not willing to do.
Amazon’s 20 matches fall during the busy Christmas shopping period, allowing the firm to use the fixtures as an acquisition tool for its Prime subscription service. It has been a successful venture but the law of diminishing returns might apply after six years given it has probably secured as many sign-ups as possible.
Instead, Amazon’s attention has turned to using live sport as a means of customer retention and it believes the Uefa Champions League is a more cost-effective tool. From the 2024/25 season, Amazon will have the first pick of games from each round of the competition in the UK, offering customers a reason to subscribe throughout the year.
'At some point DAZN will become the partner of the Premier League.' DAZN CEO, Shay Segev on his ambitions for the UK market.#SPMadrid #SportsBiz pic.twitter.com/a2FXWN9Upt
— SportsPro (@SportsPro) November 30, 2023
Where were DAZN?
DAZN has made no secret of its desire to acquire Premier League rights that would give it a foothold in its home market. Having failed to acquire BT Sport last year, it was anticipated that the sports streaming service would make a serious attempt at this auction, with the package of rearranged fixtures on Sunday afternoons believed to be of interest.
However, in the event, DAZN decided the investment required simply wasn’t worth it – especially if it wasn’t going to secure a package with sufficient volume or prestige to secure subscriptions. Chief executive Shay Segev hinted as much at SportsPro Madrid last week.
“I think for DAZN to have the Premier League in the UK would be an important milestone to have,” he said. “But the timing is also important because we want to build a sustainable business.
“I believe that at some point DAZN will become also a partner of the Premier League in the UK. To what extent [is] to be seen, I don’t know. But I think it’s a very important property and it’s very important in the UK.
“We want to be [a] global [business] so to have Premier League is the conclusion of that.
“Now, the timing needs to work because it’s a very competitive market and we do not want to do it at any cost because there [are] clearly more places for us to go and grow.”
Meanwhile, there was no sign of Apple or Disney and Viaplay is exiting the UK market entirely. As for the BBC, it’s UK£75 million (US$94.3 million) bill for highlights is largely static, reflecting the value the Premier League places on the exposure that Match of the Day offers.
The Premier League is happy, but what next?
For the best part of three decades, the story of the Premier League’s domestic rights has been one of exponential growth. But double-digit increases in the value of its contracts are now much harder to come by in a challenging rights market. Both the league and its clubs now know where they stand until 2029 and can plan accordingly.
An increase of four per cent might not sound much when compared to the 60 per cent jump it secured for the 2013/14 to 2015/16 cycle. However, this is still the biggest rights deal ever signed in the UK and the most valuable for any domestic soccer league in the world – other leagues in Europe will be looking on jealously at both the value and the rate of growth.
Italy’s top-flight Serie A’s new domestic rights deal is lower than the previous arrangement, while France’s Ligue 1 has abandoned its auction in favour of direct negotiations with partners after failing to secure satisfactory bids.
In this context, the league and its teams won’t be too concerned at a lower cost per game given the overall increase in the value of the deal. However, the fact the Premier League has had to increase the supply of matches to achieve this growth does raise the question as to what more it can do in the future.
From 2025 there will only be 110 matches not shown live on UK television. This raises the prospect of all 380 games being offered to broadcasters in four years’ time, either in dedicated timeslots or at the expense of the 3pm blackout.
Once that supply is exhausted, the Premier League will have to find other ways to increase its media revenue – or hope that the broadcast and technology landscape has evolved sufficiently to justify even larger outlays on premium sport.
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